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T O P I C R E V I E W

Robert Pearlman

The Smithsonian Institution has released a patch for the April 2012 departure of space shuttle Enterprise and arrival of space shuttle Discovery at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

The space shuttle was the icon for U.S. human spaceflight for thirty years. First launched in 1981, space shuttles completed 135 missions in Earth orbit until 2011.

NASA built six space shuttle orbiters: Enterprise, a test vehicle that flew only in the atmosphere; Columbia, flown 28 times before its loss during reentry in 2003; Challenger, destroyed during launch on its 10th mission in 1986; Discovery will 39 missions to its credit; Atlantis, 33 missions; and Endeavour, 25 missions. More than 500 people flew on the successful shuttle missions. Fourteen astronaut perished in the two shuttle tragedies.

NASA transferred Enterprise to the Smithsonian, and it was displayed at the National Air and Space Museum's Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center until the Museum received Discovery. As the oldest shuttle orbiter with the longest record of distinction in spaceflight, Discovery now holds a place of honor among the many treasures in the Smithsonian.

The 3-inch patch, which retails for $6, comes attached to a backing card with the above text on its reverse. It is available through the museum store at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

(The text includes two errors: more than 300, rather than 500, people flew on the shuttle; and the spelling of the museum's name is Steven, rather than "Stephen.")

NavySpaceFan

Very nice! I'll snag one when I'm up there for my book signing.

p51

I think going there is the only way to get one...

Good luck finding it online. The Smithsonian store website has always had very limited items and has been tough to find something specific on. After a long search, I've given up trying to find one on the site.

Robert Pearlman

The patch is not available for online ordering, but you can call the store at the museum. The product ID is 400047261967 PTCH DISC.

garyd2831

The should nickname this the "Exchange" patch

Apollo 8

This is a nice patch for everybody who collects the space shuttle era!

I ordered one for my collection today. I wrote an e-mail to the museum and the lady there was very friendly and helped me to get in contact with the store manager. I paid 6 USD for the patch and 14,50 USD for sending it overseas to Germany with FedEx economy. I hope the patch will arrive soon...

Spacemac

Just called the museum today and they told me the sale of this patch has been suspended until further notice.

Robert Pearlman

The hiatus is to provide the time needed to have new backing cards printed. Both errors in the description (identified above) are being corrected.

Apollo 8

I received mine today!!! GREAT! This 3" patch looks larger than it is, because the artwork is very detailed for such a small patch. You can see the main engines of Enterprise and the landing gear of Discovery very clearly.

A nice patch to finish a collection of Space Shuttle Era patches.

Robert Pearlman

The National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center had this patch back on sale with a corrected backing card for Discovery's arrival on April 17.

The card now correctly reads that there were more than 350 people who flew on the shuttle and corrects the spelling of the museum's name.

The Udvar-Hazy's main gift shop completely sold out their supply of patches on Tuesday. On Wednesday, only a few remained for sale from the smaller souvenir stand located on the museum's ground floor.

Robert Pearlman

In an attempt to create a unique tribute to Discovery's arrival and Enterprise's departure from the Smithsonian, collectSPACE sent one of these patches into the aurora borealis (or the northern lights) with Project Aether, a science platform launched by weather balloon in Alaska.

Unfortunately, the balloon landed in a very remote area, inaccessible to the team.

Anyone who can retrieve the patch (and our accompanying astronaut Mickey Mouse figurine) can keep the GoPro camera attached to the payload as an award. Project Aether would just like the camera's card for the imagery it contains.

There's another catch though: five payloads were lost and we do not know which one had the patch aboard. Another of the platforms had a Le Petit Prince figure on board, for which an additional GoPro accessories package award is offered to the finder. Another payload had a SPACE.com T-shirt.

Here are the last known coordinates for the five lost platforms:

65.90440 degrees north, 146.67557 degrees west

65.06421 degrees north, 148.50345 degrees west

65.13792 degrees north, 148.53404 degrees west

64.89979 degrees north, 148.54439 degrees west

64.62183 degrees north, 148.47850 degrees west

The most notable feature of the payloads is the bright orange and white 36-inch diameter parachute, and the burst 3-4 foot long white latex balloon.

Unfortunately, the most likely candidate for the payload with the patch is in an area where the only reasonable access would be helicopter, though there are too many trees to land within about two miles. So that means a 30 minute helicopter ride from Fairbanks, then a four hour hike in some swamp-like conditions.

lucspace

Is this still available anywhere? I'd like to add it to my collection...

p51

I can't answer for the Smithsonian of course but a friend of mine who lives in the area was just there two weeks ago and was told they have long ago sold out and had no plans to get more.

That said, you never know if he was talking to a sales person who really knew what they were talking about...

I just searched eBay and couldn't find one, which I thought was very odd.

J Blackburn

When I was at Udvar-Hazy at the beginning of August they did not have any of these patches for sale with the other Discovery merchandise. I found mine on in the gift shop of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in D.C.

The Smithsonian had the patches with all the same Discovery merchandise sold at Udvar-Hazy. If you have not tried that gift shop you might want to give them a call.

I was surprised that Udvar-Hazy did not have them in August.

I do recommend the Discovery hat that they have for sale. It is black with a blue and silver insignia. Very nice and official looking however the price was $25 but it was worth it.

GoesTo11

I bought a pair of these patches from an eBay seller who attended the Discovery arrival ceremony, but that was maybe a week or so after the fact. Since the patch commemorates a specific event, my guess is that NASM is done with producing/selling them. Probably same with the Endeavour "fly out" patches at KSC.

Hart Sastrowardoyo

Almost two years later and Udvar-Hazy had a bunch of them for sale. I didn't go to the National Air and Space Museum downtown, but none of the other Smithsonian museums I was in — most of them on the Mall — did not carry the patch.

dogcrew5369

Picked up my patch Saturday at Udvar-Hazy although they also have it at the National Air and Space Museum as well.

Hart Sastrowardoyo

They didn't have this at Family Day (April 25), although they did have another Discovery patch (and shame on me for not taking photos of it.) The difference, though, is that the current patch is not embroidered as this was. Almost as if it were silk-screened.